Scorchio!

Wow it's hot today.  A look along the river at about 08:30 showed there had been a bit of an arrival of new waders, with three Black-tailed Godwits alongside three Dunlin (my first of the autumn) along the waters edge...

Summer plumaged Blackwit and three Dunlin

Among the gulls three Med Gulls were on show, the first-summer that I yesterday labelled 'distinctively bland' and these two beautiful juveniles...

If you're not familiar with the juvenile plumage of Med Gull, I urge you to come over to the Axe Estuary or Black Hole Marsh and take a look at one. At this time of year they should be present pretty much daily now in varying numbers, and they really do have a delicate beauty to them.  Gorgeous things.

The moth trapping last night would have gone better had Mum and Dad's resident pair of Herring Gulls not taken an interest in the trap before I got to it!  Still there was a very good variety of moths and good numbers too. Nothing new for me or the garden, but the two scarcest species (which were actually both on the wall of the house) were...

Female Four-spotted Footman

The Fern

It was great to get the chance to introduce Harry to a Poplar Hawkmoth, his reaction was epic...

Mostly About Things With Wings

Well what a few days!

I'll start back with last Friday, when I enjoyed showing Vic Tucker, one of the authors of 'Where to Watch Birds in Devon and Cornwall', around the patch.

The main destination was Black Hole Marsh, but apart from 27 Dunlin, two Ringed Plover and 18 Black-tailed Godwit it was quiet. The weather was stunning, and Vic requested a look around Lower Bruckland Ponds - so that was where we went next.

Before we arrived I jokingly remarked how we could be on for a Lesser Emperor, as a couple had been seen in the country the previous day. Ten minutes into our wander and a stunning male Lesser Emperor flew past us! Amazing!! The second for the patch, I've found them both, and both in exactly the same place - and I mean EXACTLY the same place! I was standing on the same edge of the same pond on 16th July 2006 when a male Lesser Emperor whizzed past.

We only saw it for about 30 seconds, before an Emperor chased it off. Pleasingly though, within the next few hours it was seen another four or five times by others in roughly the same spot. No photos I'm afraid as it moved so quickly!

On the lower couple of ponds, it was nice to see c10 Small Red-eyed Damselflies. The larger ponds don't look suitable at all now due to the lack of surface vegetation, but it's great to see they are hanging on where they can...

My first for a few years - mostly because I haven't tried hard enough!

Rewinding the day back a little, I had a moth trap to go through - and it was crammed full! There were 241 moths of 45 species in the trap. 31 of these moths were Willow Beauties, with Riband Wave, Brimstone, Large Yellow Underwing, Lesser Broad-bordered Yellow Underwing and Dark Arches also represented in double figures. The highlights for me were...

Black Arches - a stunning moth

Magpie - common yes, but still a looker!

Marbled Green - caught four of these

The Fern - there were three of these, all resting on adjacent walls

Mullein Wave - a coastal species

So Friday was a successful day! What about Saturday then...

Well Jess and I decided to go west from Seaton, and we ended up here...

Jess and the entrance sign to Bystock Ponds!

The main pond - looking lovely

So, what is it we were looking for...

'in action!'

Well it wouldn't be found here, although we did see this...

A Terrapin!

After a bit more walking, and some useful directions from Chris Townend, we got to here...

That looks more like it!

Nearly, just a little too large....

Bingo! We saw at least five Small Red Damselflies - amazingly a first for me!!!

And on the way back to the car, we saw a couple of these...

Common Lizard

And that brings me to today, and the end of this post.

Is This The Longest Awaited Post Ever.....

... answer; NO! But this is me giving in to all the the cries of "we need a moth update", well both of them anyway!

I'm afraid it is going to have to be a brief one, but there's a few pretty pictures to enjoy. And - just for the 'proper mothers' - there's even a few micros featured!!

I'm not going to publish the full lists of the six catches that haven't been mentioned as yet on this blog, just some highlights.

I haven't trapped anything that's been new for the garden - although I'm 99% I had a Small Marbled 'get away' a couple of weeks ago. Just as I was unscrewing the lid of the pot to put it in, it flew off... I was rather miffed at missing out on the Rannoch Looper influx too - although it serves me right as I wasn't trapping on the nights of the main influxes.

Obviously I have had all the usual 'new for the years' as the months tick by, this morning it was nice to get the year's first one of these...

Jersey Tiger

Also this morning, I had what can only be described as the prettiest July Highflyer I've ever seen...

Well smart!

For me immigrant numbers have been very poor. In fact i've only trapped two immigrant macros so far this year, and both of them have been...

Silver Y's!

Out of the new species for the year that I've trapped, it was nice to see three beasts that are nationally rather scrarce and patchily distrubted...

Four-spotted Footman - a rather worn and faded male

The Fern

Crescent Dart - a male

And now it is micro time! Without noticing, I am looking at these little critters a little more now...

Rusty-dot Pearl; boring to look at - but it's a migrant!

Catoptria pinella; lives in wooded heaths and bogs - not sure why it was in my garden then!?

Endotricha flammealis - a smart little critter

And that's my mothing update done, now time to go out and look at some Gulls.......